Game Engine: Festive Themes

[Hyncharas]

Since that PlanetSide2 has been operating for a while, I think it’s about time a feature in the last game made a comeback: Themes. While we don’t have backpacks any more for looting – don’t make faces, Hamma – there are a few annual celebrations (Easter, Halloween/Thanksgiving, Christmas/New Year) that each last for about two weeks, which would allow for special discounts on Station Cash and in-game missions to take place, and add themed adjustments to the world of Auraxis for the duration.

I was thinking Easter could be a trial-run to evaluate the possibilities of doing it for other celebratory events, where some small changes were made to the game content. For example, grenade models for each empire could be changed to glowing eggs based on their faction colours, and the Supply Crates idea that was recently placed on indefinite hold could instead be used to create “scavenger hunt” gameplay; thousands of small, colour-coded Easter bunnies or bird nests appearing at random in the wildernesses of each continent every day, holding resources (the rarest being actual CP-bundles) that would deconstruct once opened.

As for missions, I also had an idea where small, cheap items from the Store, such as vehicle or player customisations, could be earned by gamers for completing objectives during festive periods. If players didn’t want what was on offer they could opt-out, though they would be great if people didn’t have any Station Cash to burn to purchase them, and especially good for players who haven't purchased one of the Membership packages.

[Micro]

Just like your Racing idea, I think that this type of ideas work better in let's say World of Tanks than PlanetSide 2.
You know, I don't think easter plays such a big role on Auraxis that is in war...

[Silent Thunder]

Not only that, but the dev team have much more things to do than anything of this nature. We still need continent locking, interconental lattices, the new Lattice/Hex system to be implemented, bugfixes, large amounts of assorted content too minor to list individually (IE buggies) and the two new continents that are in the pipeline. Simply, anything that requires major content effort is best put into the core game, not some holiday themed gimmick that doesn't fit the game at all.

Also as to the last point, SOE would not put in anything that would de-monitize cosmetic items. Although you said people could op out, simply the idea that it could be earned for free on a semi occuring basis would likley cause a signifigant decline in sales of cosmetic items, as people often will hold out if they think they can earn something in a reasonable amount of time. Like it or not, SOE is a buisness, and their primary goal is to make a profit. Even ignoring that aspect, servers still need to be maintained, salaries need to be paid, and advertising needs to advertise.

[Carbon Copied]

The only thing I'd say in the defense of this is that it has been a feature of PS1 (if I remember correctly) at Christmas you would get hats and also other SOE games such as EQ2 that launched "Frostfell" and others with items and quests. Although I'd refuse to play the game while ridiculous stuff like easter egg grenades were used.

To be honest I thought the St Patrick's Day camo was abit mean of SOE to not just release it as usable content with a free unlock price: everyone gets a vehicle and player camo and if you want the decals you can micro transaction them separate at the regular price I guess. Didn't feel very "community friendly" in the shadow of other games with similar "events".

Don't get me wrong I know that the game relies on microtranactions but you won't catch me buying a camo or holiday item as they tend to just have the lifespan of the holiday itself.

[Hyncharas]

so what everybody's saying is that I'm an a****** that shouldn't be playing the game at all, let alone coming with ideas for it?

[ChipMHazard]

No, no one is stating that.
Having people disagree with one's ideas is normal and should not be viewed as anything but that.